Tuesday Topics: What you don't know

What you don't know {if you only know me via blog world} is that my family went on a private tour of the West Wing of the White House. We stood in the doorway of the Oval Office and sat in the President's chair at the breakfast table. 

{On the lawn in front of the West Wing, one of the few places we were allowed to take pictures.
Sidenote: Welcome to my awkward stage.}

What you don't know is that I was Little Miss Yoakum when I was seven years old.

Yes, pageant winners wore red lace-up boots and leather sashes. Only in Yoakum...

{A typical Saturday morning for Yoakum's royalty.}

What you don't know is that I took clogging as a kid. I'll be honest, I was one of the best cloggers out there. But when it was time for the ballet routine, I was always in the back. 

{Performing in downtown Yoakum at Land of Leather Days}

What you don't know is that I'd like to go back to school one day and become a play therapist. The longer I work as a child life specialist the more I realize that play therapy is what I really want to do. 

Happy Tuesday, friends!

{I'm linking up here today.}

Tuesday Topics: My Hometown

"All hail to dear old Yoakum..." I thought I'd start with our high school alma mater lyrics, 

then I thought 'Hmmm... Better not.' {Pitch Perfect, anyone??}

Welcome to Yoakum, Texas!
Population: 5,847
{according to Google}

The small town in south Texas where you know everyone, and everyone knows what you do on the weekends. Just kidding. Sort of. 

There's not much to say about our town, other than we're the leather capitol of the world. 

Yeah, the world. We think it's a big deal. 

It's such a big deal that we have a festival once a year to celebrate. The last weekend in February we get together for "Land of Leather Days", a weekend-long craft show and chili cook-off. It's guaranteed to be cold and rainy every year, but don't worry. If you eat enough chili you'll stay warm.


Then in June we have our annual Tom Tom Festival. The festival originated to honor Yoakum's tomato industry. Get it? TOMato, Tom Tom?? Anyway, the weekend consists of a barbeque cook-off , live music, a parade through downtown Yoakum, a softball tournament that Brandon plays in every year, and most importantly...

The weenie dog race! Princess made her race debut in 2008, and after winning Ms. Congeniality she retired.  {Don't tell Princess, but there was really no Ms. Congeniality award. Since she was more interested in visiting with the crowd than actually running the race we gave her that title ourselves.}


On the weekends we enjoy live Texas country music at The Gin, our former feed store turned dance hall,

{via}

and in the summer we stand in line for up to thirty minutes to get one of the town's best sno cones.

{Funny Story: B and I used to ride our bikes here in junior high!}

But if you want to get a real feel for our town find a back yard or pasture where friends are gathered. They'll most likely be near a camp fire, toasting marshmallows and enjoying a game of washers or cornhole.

{Kayla and I at the camp house; October 2012}

{Shell, Maddie, Alicia; October 2012}

Life in Yoakum is pretty laid back, but if you stick around long enough you'll make friends that will last a lifetime.

{I'm linking up here today.}

Friendship, and Weekends Like This

This is the third opening line I've typed for this post.
I just can't seem to get it right. 

I want to tell you about our weekend,
the weekend that Kayla and Riley came to visit.
I want you to know how much we truly enjoyed it.

First I want to tell you our history and everything that brought us together.
I want to tell you about our life long friendship
and what role each of us played in helping one another find true love.

I want to share with you all of our memories,
memories of proms, graduations, twenty-first birthdays, and weddings.

Mostly, I want you to know just how special this friendship really is.

And then maybe you'll understand why this weekend meant so much.
Maybe you'll understand why it felt so good to pick up where we left off
and continue our heartfelt conversations.

Maybe you'll see that a weekend of dinner, bowling,
breakfast tacos and Pitch Perfect can actually be good for your soul.

If you're like me you'll realize
that this kind of friendship only happens once-in-a-lifetime,
and you'll vow to yourself to make weekends like this happen a lot more often.